A People Dispossessed

"The four great powers have taken up the Zionist cause. And Zionism, be it just or false, good or bad, is rooted in long-standing traditions, in present needs, and in future hopes that are far more important than the desires or the frustrations of the seven hundred thousand Arabs who live on this ancient land today."

– Lord Balfour, August 11, 1919

1900: Keren Keyemeth (Jewish National Fund) founded as land-acquisition organ of WZO with the function of acquiring land in Palestine to be inalienably Jewish with exclusively Jewish labour employed on it. The population of historical Palestine – what is now Israel, the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem – was 550,000 Palestinian Arabs and 50,000 Jews.

1945: March 22: Covenant of League of Arab States, emphasising Arab character of Palestine, signed in Cairo by Egypt, Iraq, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Transjordan and Yemen.

Aug. 31: Pres. Truman asks British PM Clement Attlee to grant immigration certificates allowing 100,000 Jews into Palestine.

Sept.: British government issues Defence Regulations authorising military rule in Palestine.

Dec.: The Arab League Council decides to boycott goods produced by Zionist firms in Palestine. A special office is established to prevent such goods from being smuggled into Arab countries.

1946: May: Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry publishes report on the admission of 150,000 Jewish immigrants into Palestine.

July 22: Irgun and Stern Gang Zionist groups blow up King David Hotel, Jerusalem.

July 24: British issue special White Paper on Terrorism in Palestine accusing Jewish Agency of being involved in acts of terrorism with Irgun and Stern Gangs.

July 31: Anglo-American Conference, meeting in London, proposes a federal scheme for solving the Palestine problem known as Morrison-Grady Plan.

Mainly due to settlers from Europe, the Jewish population grew more than tenfold to 608,000. The Palestinian population stood at 1,269,000. The Jewish population owned only six to eight per cent of the country's land.

1947: Feb. 18: British Foreign Sec. Ernest Bevin announces British submission of Palestine problem to UN.

Sept. 29: Arab Higher Committee for Palestine announces rejection of UN partition plan.

Oct. 2: Jewish Agency announces acceptance of UN partition plan.

Oct. 11: US endorses UN partition plan.

Oct. 13: Soviet Union endorses UN partition plan.

Nov. 29: UN Partition Res. 181 includes the recommendations that Jaffa be part of the proposed Palestinian state and that Jerusalem and Bethlehem be a corpus separatum under a special international regime administered by the Trusteeship Council on behalf of UN.

1948: April 9: Irgun and Stern Gangs lead by Menahem Begin and Yitzhaq Shamir massacre 245 Palestinians in the village of Deir Yassin, western suburb of Jerusalem.

April 11: Haganah destroy village of Kalonia near Qastel and occupy Deir Yassin.

April 30: All Palestinian quarters in West Jerusalem occupied by Haganah and Palestinians were driven out.

May 2: The Jewish Agency completes mobilisation of Jewish manpower.

May 14: State of Israel proclaimed in Tel-Aviv at 4:00 p.m.

May 15: British Mandate ends.

- The Arab States dispatch around 25,000 of their armed forces to Palestine.

- The Haganah, made up of 60,000 to 70,000 trained members become the backbone of the Israeli Army.

May 15-17: USA and USSR recognise Israel.

Sept. 1: Palestinian National Conference in Gaza. Formation of All-Palestine Government.

Oct. 1: All-Palestine Government announces Palestinian independence.

Oct. 15: The recognition of the All-Palestine Government by Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Saudi Arabia.

Dec. 11: UN Gen. Assembly Res. 194 (III): the right of Palestinian refugees to return. Israel has refused to comply for the last 53 years.

1967: June 5: June War; Israel initiated a war against its neighbours and occupied the remaining 22 per cent of Palestine, bringing another 1.1 million Palestinians under Israeli military rule. Israel begins military occupation of "West Bank" and Gaza Strip of Palestine, Sinai of Egypt and Golan Heights of Syria.

June 28: Israel annexes old Jerusalem, begins Jewish settlement in OPT.

July 4: UN Gen. Assembly Res. 2253 (ES-U) calls upon Israel to "rescind all measures taken (and) to desist forthwith, from taking any action which would alter the status of Jerusalem."

2002: Israel's Jewish population is approximately 5.2 million. Approximately 1.3 million non-Jews, overwhelmingly Palestinian, also live within Israel's borders and face legalised discrimination. Another two million Palestinians live in the territories conquered in the 1967 war – the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem. Since 1967, Israel has built more than 150 settlements in the West Bank and Gaza. These settlements are strategically located military outposts connected by four- lane highways that slice up the West Bank. Since Ariel Sharon's election in February 2001, more than 34 new settlements have been established in Palestinian territories.